Skelton and Beale could feature for the Wallabies this year

Skelton and Beale could feature for the Wallabies this year

Kurtley Beale, Will Skelton and Rory Arnold are among the players who could receive test recalls for the Wallabies' end of year tour.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Rugby Australia chief executive Andy Marinos conceded that the Wallabies may be forced to pick players based in Europe for the tests against Scotland, England and Wales on November 7, 14 and 21 respectively.

Wallabies head coach Dave Rennie is able to select players based abroad provided they fulfil the requirements of the 'Giteau Law'.

Last year, Rennie was able to select two players who have not met the 'Giteau Law' requirements of 60-Test cpas or seven-year service threshold that has been in place since 2015. 

However, the Wallabies boss did not call on the services of Rory Arnold or Will Skelton nor did he call on Kurtley Beale - who does meet the requirements.


It is unlikely that the Wallabies will not have to quarantine upon their arrival in Europe but Australia’s strict international borders may mean the squad will have to spend 14 days in hard quarantine when they return.

 
Marinos hinted a tweak to the Giteau Law could be introduced to ensure the strongest possible squad faces the northern hemisphere nations.
 

“It’s an important from a rugby calendar point of view and a player point of view. We are fully cognisant of the fact that, coming back, we are going to have to step into two-week quarantine. Dave and the team are aware of that,” Marinos said.


“Those are conversations we need to have with the playing group to properly understand that. From a high-performance perspective, considering players that are domiciled in the UK, that’s part of a broader discussion we are going to be having within Rugby Australia.

“To be fair, the first six months of the year have been about setting up domestic structures and making sure we can deliver inbound [Tests] before we start to have all those further conversations around eligibility pieces and what we do when players can or can’t travel.”

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